National Science Week 2010 – Part 1

National Science Week is over for another year after unfortunately coinciding with and being overshadowed by an ultimately pointless federal election campaign. This series of 4 posts is my wrap up of this year’s events.

First up at the Brains Matter live show was Corin Storkey from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology, who you may know from ‘Beauty and the Geek’. Corin’s talk was about antioxidants and the role that foods like brazil nuts and chocolate play in reactions with free radicals in the body. Corin was a very good presenter, and I hope he can use his fame to help counteract the negative stereotyping of scientists in popular media . As an added bonus, samples of chocolate and brazil nuts were passed around the audience during the talk – free chocolate is always welcomed!

The musical interlude between Corin’s talk and the live broadcast was also quite enjoyable, in particular, Clive’s rendition of ‘Everybody Do The Dinosaur’ was a hoot.

Following the musical interlude, the live broadcast of the Brains Matter podcast began. Guest Patricia Vickers-Rich, and a complement of cute and enthusastic audience members made the show interesting, informative and entertaining. I certainly picked up some new paleontological knowledge. You can listen to the podcast at the Brains Matter website. And I also recommend the recent Brains Matter episode 122 relating to the federal election and the science policies of many of the political parties.